Innumerable disposable and non-disposable beverage cups are used every day. Disposable cups are typically limited to one or perhaps a few uses and then are normally discarded as waste. While useful, such cups are decidedly unfriendly to the environment and may simply be unavailable when needed. Non-disposable cups, such as plastic and glass vessels, can be cleaned and reused indefinitely, but it is not practical or convenient to carry and store them during travel. In both cases, beverage cups of the prior art are demonstrably limited in their portability, availability, and convenience.
It has thus been appreciated that a need exists for a cup that can be stored and transported conveniently, that can be rendered readily available, and that is reusable. There is a more particular need for a cup that can be folded or collapsed for storage and selectively reconfigured to an expanded, use configuration quickly, conveniently, and effectively. It is clear that a further need exists for such a foldable cup that is suitable for hot and cold beverages, that is durable, and that is easy to use.
In response to the foregoing shortcomings and needs, a number of inventors set about designing collapsible beverage cups. For instance, with U.S. Pat. No. 8,333,296, Duncan Fung disclosed a thermally insulated foldable cup for hot and cold beverages. Unfortunately, the cup of the '296 patent requires assembly, and it has external caps and straps that cannot be completely cleaned. Perhaps more importantly, the caps could become inadvertently dislodged at the risk of disastrous results.
Other prior art collapsible cups likewise present a risk of unintended collapsing, which can lead not only to a loss of the retained beverage or other material but also mess, inconvenience, and potential physical harm from hot beverages and the like. Moreover, many known collapsible cups are simply too bulky when in a collapsed configuration. Still further, collapsible cups of the prior art can be challenging to clean and difficult to adjust between collapsed and open configurations. Collapsible cups that are hard to clean and dry lead to poor hygienic results, foul tastes, and leakage in the user's pocket or storage area. Further still, collapsible cups of the prior art are rarely elegant in appearance and do not even approximate the appearance of a traditional cup. With that, they can be off-putting to a typical consumer. While some collapsible cups taught by the prior art seek to address one or more of these issues, no known collapsible cup of the prior art has successfully remedied these several challenges simultaneously.
With a knowledge of the foregoing, the present inventors appreciate that there remains a need for a collapsible beverage cup that overcomes the foregoing disadvantages.